Dallas Symphony Orchestra reveals 2013-14 concerts

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will continue a reduced schedule of classical and pops series concerts in 2013-14: Sixteen of the former, nine of the latter. Programming is conservative, with numerous repeats of works performed in recent seasons.

A three-week Beethoven Festival will include a chamber music series in the new Dallas City Performance Hall as well as orchestral concerts at the Meyerson Symphony Center. Violinist Chee-Yun and DSO co-concertmasters Alexander Kerr and Nathan Olson will divvy up the composer’s complete sonatas for violin and piano, with pianists Alessio Bax and Martin Helmchen. DSO principal cellist Christopher Adkins will join for piano trios by Haydn and Beethoven, Alisa Weilerstein for the Beethoven Archduke Trio.

Another initiative will be a pair of orchestral concerts, in October and March, in the City Performance Hall. Programming has yet to be announced.

Superstar soprano Renée Fleming will be the soloist for the Sept. 28 Gala. Soloists in the classical series will include pianists Hélène Grimaud, Louis Lortie and Yefim Bronfman, violinists Joshua Bell, Karen Gomyo and Arabella Steinbacher and singers Twyla Robinson, Frank Lopardo and Matthias Goerne.

Music director Jaap van Zweden will conduct 12 of the 16 classical programs, as well as the Gala. Former music director Andrew Litton will return for one program. The other three guests conductors are Tomás Netopil, Jakub Hrusa and Ottavio Dantone.

In the pops series, apart from Bernadette Peters and the acrobats/aerialists Cirque de la Symphonie, guest artists will be conspicuously absent. Orchestral programs will feature the music of Gershwin, John Denver and Hollywood classics.

In the absence of a principal pops conductor after the death in August of Marvin Hamlisch, Jeff Tyzik will conduct three pops programs. The others will be divided among six other conductors, including former principal pops conductor Richard Kaufman.

A November classical series program will mark the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas with a newly commissioned work, The World Is Very Different Now, by the 18-year-old American pianist-violinist-composer Conrad Tao.

The 2013 Britten centenary will be marked with the Sinfonia da Requiem, a repeat from 2008. Other works performed in recent seasons include Beethoven’s Fifth (2012 and 2010) and Ninth (2011) symphonies and the Verdi Requiem (2008 and 2004).

The orchestra will also continue its “DSO on the Go” series of run-out concerts to venues throughout the North Texas area. Dates and programming for those will be announced later.

Tickets are now on sale for the Gala. Season subscriptions for the classical ($138-$1,485), pops ($157-$1,080) and family series ($20-$111) will go on sale Feb. 8, single tickets in August. Information: 214-692-0203, dallassymphony.com.